Automatic Merchandiser - 16

DATA

SECURITY

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Ensuring Business
And Payments

SECURITY
Automatic retail operators should invest in trustworthy
legal and technology services to protect their business
By Mary Stroka, associate editor

tolen data, lawsuits, and theft
are among the many threats to
operators in the automatic retail
industry. While hackers and legal
issues can endanger a company, there
are services that operators can use to
ensure success.

Ensuring Security in
Payment Processing
The security involved in processing
payments at vending machines is a
multifaceted operation, but operators can partner with companies
that specialize in this security.
USA Technologies (USAT) is
a cashless payments and software
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Automatic Merchandiser

services company that provides
end-to-end technology solutions for
the self-service retail market. Paul
Stadler, vice president of product
management at USAT, said that while
most vending machines do not currently have EMV-compliant chip
readers on payment terminals, he
anticipates change is coming.
Chip readers that have EMV
(Europay, Mastercard and Visa) chip
technology initially had large retailers and sellers of big-ticket items
balking at the cost of replacing terminals, Stadler said. Card issuers also
found it more expensive to create the
cards. While retail ended up opting

VendingMarketWatch.com

August 2019

for compliance with EMV standards,
the unattended retail industry has
not made it a priority yet, he added.
Most of the retailers USAT
works with have small-ticket items
that cost consumers, on average, less than $10, such
as beverages or car wash
packages, he explained.
"It turns out that when you're
doing small-ticket, you're usually
less susceptible as a target of fraudsters," Stadler said. "You're still very
at risk from hacking attacks where
people try to steal payment information - which is why security matters - but you're probably not the
target of a fraudster. What they're
going after is high-value targets -
things like computers, cameras, electronics, jewelry, fashion items. And
so the EMV portion of it - we're
coming later than retail did. And
that's fine, because it hasn't been a
huge driver in this industry. But we
think it will be moving forward, and
that's why [USAT is] entering that
game now."
As the company foresees this
trend, it is developing a product
that will pair with the technology
involved in EMV-compliant readers,
Stadler said. This technology, relying
on what is often called the "chip," is
a small computer on the credit card
and the associated hardware and
software. There is also a wireless, or
NFC, version that does not require
inserting the card physically.

Ensuring Additional Protection
Another layer of protection is the
sealing of the card reader. Hackers
would need to physically modify
the card reader to be able to hack it,
Stadler said. While EMV compliance
does not prevent card reader damage,
it makes it more difficult for people
to commit counterfeit-based fraud by
copying cards. He said that fraudsters who would take the time to find
a way to duplicate cards would not

http://www.VendingMarketWatch.com

Automatic Merchandiser

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